Today's communication networks provide transport of voice, video and data to both residential and commercial customers, with more and more of those customers being connected by fiber optic cables. In these communication networks, information is transmitted from one location to another by sending pulses of light through the fiber optic cables. Fiber optic transmission provides several advantages over electrical transmission techniques, such as increased bandwidth and lower losses.
Fiber demarcation boxes are used in fiber optic networks to secure and store spliced fiber optic cabling. For example, a splice between service provider cabling and customer cabling can be stored in a fiber demarcation box. The service provider cabling is routed into the fiber demarcation box such that a rugged exterior cable jacket is stripped to expose loose-buffer-tubes from the cable jacket. Each of the loose-buffer-tubes contains one or more optical fibers that can be spliced with customer cabling. For instance, the loose-buffer-tubes may be spliced with so-called “pigtail” cables. A pigtail cable includes a standardized end connector at one and exposed fiber at the other end.
When storing a splice of fiber optic cabling in a fiber demarcation box, it is important to minimize the potential damage to the cabling. In many cases, if the fiber optic cabling is not mechanically protected, it is susceptible to damage, which can potentially disrupt the fiber optic connection. For example, pigtail cabling typically has a relatively small diameter (e.g., 900 nm or less) with a relatively thin layer of encapsulant material protecting the optical fiber. This pigtail cabling may be referred to as a tight-buffer fiber optic cabling because the encapsulant material is formed directly on the optical fibers. By contrast, the protective structure of loose-buffer-tube fiber optic cabling is decoupled from the individual optical fibers. Furthermore, the protective structure of loose-buffer-tube fiber optic cabling is typically much thicker and stiffer than pigtail cabling. Thus, the loose buffer tube cabling has the potential to damage the pigtail cabling, e.g., by friction or acute mechanical pressure.
The need to minimize potential damage to the cabling can be in conflict with the need to splice and store greater volumes of fiber optic cables in smaller areas. The number and volume of the fiber optic cables utilized in modern fiber optic networks continues to grow in response to the need for increased bandwidth. In some instances, the network is built out such that there is little or no room to provide larger fiber demarcation boxes. Thus, there is a need to provide a fiber demarcation box with increased space efficiency without compromising the potential of damage to the cabling stored within the fiber demarcation box.